Monthly Archive: December 2014

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Sing out the old…

Christmas for the Cleddau crew was well and truly heralded by carols: two Carol Services back in Bedfordshire, outdoor community carol singing on Christmas Eve at Bollington in Cheshire,      then after Christmas morning presents a 295 foot climb up to White Nancy       to hear some of Bollington’s brass band play carols at midday.                  Then followed Christmas lunch… It’s been a good year end to a very good year: reunions with friends various  and old schoolmates , a Spring...

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Afloat Again

We are back on Cleddau for the New Year. The temperature inside is 17C/63F and rising. The Captain (I do not have Boatwif’s approval for this very short blog!)

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Farewell California

After the Midway trip on Sunday only three days remained of the 2014 Thanksgiving visit. There were some shops to check out,     as well as neighbourhood bike rides     and school runs to do. Cloudless blue skies, balmy sunshine, clear vistas – these are the clichéd images for Southern California. Mostly that is what you see, but on December 1st winter began to invade the Californian idyll.      Cloudy skies gathered over the northern coast – and the rains began. So rare...

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All aboard a flight deck

If you think manoeuvring a 60 foot narrow boat can be a challenge imagine steering this… Moored in San Diego Harbor is the USS Midway*, a truly enormous aircraft carrier that over her long career saw service in the sub-Arctic, off Vietnam, was home-berthed in Japan and was flagship in 1991 in the Persian Gulf. It’s a well-known visitor attraction, in 2012 being the first US Navy ship museum to host a million visitors per annum. Midway was built in...

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Snippets from San Marcos

It may have been George Bernard Shaw who said that England and America are two countries divided by a common language.   It’s both the differences and the similarities to British speech and custom that startle visitors to the US. Speech “You’d better not say Tow-marto when you’re in America, Granny,” said Cal Gal. “They don’t understand you, say tow-maydo.” Gulp.  Here in Southern California the Cleddau crew’s British accents and pronunciations are foreign then.  “Hey, where d’you guys come from?”...